Page 12
Author: Bella Andre
He wasn’t much for suits, but Nicola deserved his taking the time to scrub up and throw on a tie. He knew Mia would think he’d deliberately changed his schedule this weekend so that he could continue to be in her face, but while that was an awesome cosmic bonus, he truly had been hoping he could shift his packed schedule by just a few hours so that he could witness his friend make her vows.
In Ford’s experience, real love was pretty damned rare. And when two incredibly busy and successful people like Nicola and Marcus were actually able to make it work, he thought that deserved to be celebrated in a major way.
Billy, his bodyguard, was already waiting for him in the passenger seat of the black Tesla they’d rented for the day. When Ford slid in behind the wheel, Billy said, “I love you,” into his phone, then slid it back into his pocket.
“Nice suit and tie, sir. ”
Ford grinned at the sarcastic compliment. “Hoping to impress a lady today and figured it was time to pull out the big guns. How’s Susan doing?”
Billy rarely had to use any force as a bodyguard simply because he was so big and looked so scary that people didn’t dare try anything with Ford. But being asked a question about his wife softened his features until he was almost approachable. “She’s pretty ready to have the kid, now that we’re only four weeks out. ”
Ford had already picked out a great baby gift for Susan and Billy. The highest safety rated vehicle on the road would be waiting for them in the hospital parking lot right after she gave birth to their mini-me.
A few minutes later, Ford pulled into the back entrance to Sullivan Winery. Nicola had prepped the valet for his arrival so they were waved right through. A guy in a blue suit was speaking into a headset as he walked up to their car. “Welcome, Mr. Vincent. Ms. Harding wanted me to let you know that the ceremony will begin in five minutes. Please head in via that side door. ”
Giving both valets a healthy tip, Ford put on a dark hat and kept his head down just in case any of the guests were still milling around outside as he and Billy made their way across the gravel lot. Nicola and Marcus would be saying their vows in a huge converted barn, painted red and renovated with enormous windows that looked out over the rolling acres of vines.
It was one heck of a spot to get married, Ford thought, as he made a mental note about the winery for the future he hoped to have with Mia.
As he opened the side door, the first notes of the Wedding March rang out from an old organ that had been installed in a loft in the barn. The front half of the barn had been set up to resemble an old country church, with built-in wooden pews and an aisle down the middle.
Even though the pews were full, it took Ford less than five seconds to find Mia. She was in the first row with what he guessed had to be other family members. She was wearing a dark pink silk dress that looked like it had been made just for her, as elegant as it was sexy. She wore it the way she wore everything—including nothing at all—with innate confidence and a sensuality that made it impossible for Ford to look away.
Thankfully, she was standing and looking down the aisle waiting for Nicola to appear, which meant that Ford could fairly easily squeeze in behind her. Fortunately, everyone else’s gaze was trained on the door, as well.
Though it was nearly impossible to pull his gaze from Mia, Ford made himself take a few seconds to check out Nicola’s wedding. Where Ford had seen grooms looking green and worried at the altar, apart from the slight impatience on her groom’s face to have his woman in his arms, Marcus Sullivan looked like the happiest dude on the planet.
Years ago, Ford wouldn’t have believed love was real. But now he was starting to realize that love was more powerful than anything else. More important than career, or money, or pride.
There were five guys standing to one side of Marcus, and they all resembled him enough that Ford pretty quickly figured they had to be either brothers or cousins. He recognized Smith Sullivan, of course, not only from his movies, but also because the two of them had been in and out of a few of the same Hollywood parties over the years. They’d never actually sat down and talked, but Smith had always struck Ford as a good guy, and surprisingly normal considering his enormous fame and success.
Five women stood beside each other on the other side of the officiant, and that was when he had to do a double take. The officiant was the best damn looking woman on the far side of sixty that he’d ever set eyes on. And if she wasn’t closely related to Marcus and his groomsmen, Ford would eat his shoes. He’d known Mia’s family was close, but it looked like all the other branches of the family were, too.
Had Marcus actually chosen his own mother to marry him and Nicola?
Jesus, Ford couldn’t imagine his mother so much as considering doing that for him. Her society circle would never get over something so unconventional. Nor could he imagine a world in which he’d want her to. When he finally got married, frankly, he wasn’t even sure they’d remember to come, not if they had another more socially important event to attend. Besides, they’d probably be terrified that he’d show up to his own wedding in leather, with his tattoos on display.
What, he wondered, would it be like to be part of a family like the Sullivans?
An emotion he couldn’t immediately define rose up and momentarily choked him. As a songwriter, his brain automatically searched for the right word.
It wasn’t jealousy, exactly. More like. . . yearning. Not just for the woman he still loved to love him back, but for a family that actually cared about him like the Sullivans cared about each other.
Mia was standing close enough to him that he could have so easily given in to that desperate yearning by slipping his arm around her waist and pulling her into him. As it was, her exotic scent was driving him halfway to crazy. But, damn it, he’d promised himself he wouldn’t do anything to ruin Nicola’s wedding—and the fuss Mia was bound to put up if he dared touch her like that here would surely do that. But it was a hell of a job to hold himself in check just then.
Soon, however, he knew his control was bound to break. . .
A collective gasp rang out in the barn as Nicola appeared on her father’s arm.
“Oh, my gosh, she looks so beautiful,” Mia whispered to herself.
And as his friend moved slowly down the rose petal-strewn aisle with her father, Ford agreed wholeheartedly. Nicola was naturally a very pretty woman, but today she was positively glowing in finely sewn white lace with a crown of small white and yellow flowers over her pink and blue streaked blond hair.
The gray-haired man at Ford’s back shifted to see better, which shoved Ford’s hips into Mia’s gorgeous backside.
Caught, he thought with a grin as he felt her body heat up in front of his, before going stiff.
Lord, he’d never forgotten what it was like to have her in his arms, the inferno of passion and sweetness that nothing else he’d ever experienced had come close to touching. Not winning a half-dozen Grammys in one night or playing for a crowd of two hundred thousand people in Japan.
Fortunately, no one but Mia seemed to have noticed Ford yet, and he instinctively pulled his hat down further as he turned toward the front of the barn. That was when he saw Marcus break away from the group up front. With long strides, he met Nicola and her father in the middle of the aisle.
After shaking Marcus’s hand, her father pressed a kiss to his daughter’s forehead. Nicola’s eyes were clearly wet as she hugged her father, but after Marcus took her hands in his and pulled her into him for a passionate kiss, she couldn’t stop smiling.
Even though the bride and groom had just broken wedding protocol, their guests went wild with applause, not to mention the loud whistles from the groomsmen. Even Mia, despite her obvious shock that Ford was behind her, couldn’t help but clap her hands and laugh as the bride and groom finally pulled apart and pretty much ran together up to the front of the barn to make things official.
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With the crowd still laughing as they sat down, Ford turned to whisper to Mia, “You’re beautiful. ”
With her eyes still on the bride and groom, she leaned toward him and whispered back, “And you’re a sneaky dirtbag. ”
Only through sheer force of will did Ford keep himself from laughing out loud. Because just sitting next to Mia Sullivan made him feel happier than anything else could.
Chapter Eleven
“Dear friends and family, we’re so glad you could be with us here today to celebrate the love between Marcus and Nicola. ”
As Mary Sullivan addressed the wedding guests, Mia worked to fight back the tears that were already starting to come. The problem was that just watching Nicola walk down the aisle had been enough to get her choked up, and when Marcus had been too impatient to stop himself from running down the aisle to steal his bride away from her father. . . well, could there be any more beautiful example of just how much he loved her?
Mia had never been a crier, not when she’d learned as a little girl that if she wanted her brothers to include her in their adventures, she’d better suck it up when she fell off stuff and got hurt. But she’d decided long ago that at family weddings, she was allowed to break her no-crying rule. They were always highly emotional experiences for her, and by the time the bride made her appearance and the vows were spoken, Mia was inevitably lost in emotion.
Today, it wasn’t the crying she objected to. It was letting any part of her guard down around Ford. Because being in a heightened emotional state was a terrible place to be with him sitting next to her.
She should be stone cold around him. Or she should remember to be angry so that she kept her walls up. Both of those reactions would have made sense.
Anything made sense right now but feeling like it was too much, too good, too right to be sitting this close to him.
No. She needed to stop focusing on Ford. Today was about Marcus and Nicola. If she couldn’t help but cry, c’est la vie. The important thing was that her tears wouldn’t have a single thing to do with the man who’d had the nerve to sneak into the barn and squeeze in next to her in the already crowded pew. Heck, by now, she felt like she was practically sitting on his lap. . . and she refused to admit to herself just how downright sexy that thought was.
Focus, Mia!
With laser precision, she trained her gaze on her cousin, knowing Marcus had never looked happier. She was so happy for him, especially considering how much of his own life he’d put on hold when her Uncle Jack had passed away and Marcus had taken over the reins of the family to help raise his seven younger brothers and sisters. Every single person in the barn could see the way he looked at his bride, like she was absolutely everything to him.
It was an expression she regularly saw on the faces of her cousins and her brother when they looked at the women they’d fallen for. But, she found herself thinking for the very first time, hadn’t she recently seen that look in a more personal way? But where?
Suddenly it hit her: It was exactly how Ford had looked when he first saw her walk into the tower on Friday morning!
Oh God. . . she couldn’t be right about this, had to be spinning out from one drink too many on Friday night with the girls, and not enough sleep, and a stressful work week, and all the emotion in the barn.
And yet, before she could stop herself, pure shock at the thought that it might be true had her turning to look directly at Ford for the first time since he’d slid in beside her.
Do you really feel that way about me?
As if he’d been able to read her mind, his dark eyes immediately held hers. The heat—and emotion—in them held her completely still while she could have sworn he answered back.
Always.
Somehow, Mia managed to drag her gaze away. She forced herself to keep breathing slowly and evenly until she got her heart rate back to normal. That had always been her problem with Ford: When she was this near to him, her brain went haywire, straight into crazy-town where rock stars who regularly hopped into multiple beds in a single night actually wanted to be with only one woman for the rest of their lives.